Dartmoor Dung Beetle Survey (2024)

The Dartmoor Dung Beetle Survey (2024) is a baseline study of dung beetle diversity across three of Dartmoor's commons: Holne Moor, and Harford and Ugborough commons, together with the surrounding in-bye land farmed by the commoners there. It was steered by entomologist Clive Turner together with David Atwell of the Dartmoor Hill Farm Project, and carried out as part of the Our Upland Commons project, a Foundation for Common Land partnership supporting commoners and upland farming communities across England.

England has only 58 known species of dung beetle, and the survey found Dartmoor holds one of the most diverse dung beetle populations in northern Europe. Dung type mattered as much as location: on average, the survey counted 358 beetles per litre of sheep dung, compared with 186 per litre in horse manure and just 6 per litre in cow pats, underlining how the mix of livestock grazing a common shapes its invertebrate life. It was the first study of its kind on Dartmoor, and the resulting baseline record is intended to inform future land management decisions on the commons surveyed.

One notable find during the survey was Atholus bimaculatus, a locally rare clown beetle, recorded at Bittaford next to Harford and Ugborough Common, the first record of the species near Plymouth since the late 1930s. As part of the project, Turner also worked directly with commoners and their families, walking the ground with them to look at dung and the beetles living in it, engagement the Foundation for Common Land reported was well received, with three generations of some commoning families taking part.

Sources: Foundation for Common Land, full survey report (PDF), Foundation for Common Land (Bittaford find).